LOOSE LIPS - Clint Eastwood Nostalgic For The Days When Racist Jokes Rocked!
Per an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine... Acting legend Clint Eastwood apparently believes that political correctness has rendered modern society humorless. He accuses younger generations of spending too much time trying to avoid being offensive.
The Dirty Harry star insists that he should be able to tell harmless jokes about nationality without fearing that people may brand him "a racist"... stating:
"People have lost their sense of humor. In former times we constantly made jokes about different races. You can only tell them today with one hand over your mouth or you will be insulted as a racist... I find that ridiculous. In those earlier days every friendly clique had a 'Sam the Jew' or 'Jose the Mexican' - but we didn't think anything of it or have a racist thought. It was just normal that we made jokes based on our nationality or ethnicity. That was never a problem. I don't want to be politically correct. We're all spending too much time and energy trying to be politically correct about everything."
What "former times" is he referring to? When has it ever been OK to tell racist jokes? He's almost 80 years old, so, maybe he's recalling an era when most of us weren't even born, when Jim Crow laws where mandate. I wonder how many "How do you get a nigger out of a tree?" jokes he told during those "former times" he's referring to.
Maybe his choice of words was just unfortunate. After all, he makes it easy for one to quickly dismiss what he says as the rantings of an old white man with privilege. I can understand what he may have meant to say... emphasis on "may have," since I'm obviously not in Clint Eastwood's head. I would agree that we have become a hypersensitive nation (I'm certainly guilty of knee-jerk reactions to perceived racially offensive material). But, as I said in a previous post, that "hypersensitivity" is influenced by something very real, which should be acknowledged.
So, instead of good old Clint's seemingly careless, dismissive comments, people like him should be encouraging discussion and deconstruction of what's at the root of said hypersensitivity.
*Sigh* It's all so damned idiotic, when one considers just how much havoc we've allowed the social construct we call race, to wreak upon us!
Although, maybe he's unto something. Humor can be a powerful tool used to demystify aspects of life, and possibly expose the stupidity of something as divisive and nonsensical as "race."
Thoughts?
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There is a difference between using racial and cultural characteristics to demean people, versus being able to have honest, even humorous discussions regarding these distinctions and characteristics.
Blah, blah, blah. Go ahead Clint, make my day, tell me a racist joke. I know you want to LOL.
Eastwood is married to a woman who is of African-American and Japanese descent. I wonder what she thinks about what he said.
I agree with Clint Eastwood to a certain extent. The term PC, contrary to it's popular usage, has negative connotations. It is an un-American term in the sense that it forces us to express ourselves in ways that are socially acceptable, other than how we truly feel (free speech). Where do we draw the line? Should we draw the line?
When I saw this earlier, I thought "Now what is Clint talking about? He may be getting dodgy".
But I agree that the whole PC thing has gotten out of hand--folks are protesting and making international incidences of things at the drop of a hat.
On the other hand, Clint does seem like he might have used the n-word quite freely in his day; maybe he's nostalgic for the days when someone like Spike would have been beat up by a mob for talking back...lol!
You can't tell a race-based joke today, because it's hurtful. It's hurtful because it reminds us of the real pain that people suffer from racism today, and in recent memory.
One day, we will have no racism. One day we will have risen above the petty BS that is discrimination.
And, we will be able to look back and laugh.
Clint Eastwood isn't behind the times on this...he's ahead of them. I don't know if he realizes it, though.
all evidence would suggest that eastwood is indeed a liberal... at the very least, the recent work he has done as a writer, director and actor shows that he is very thoughtful about issues of racism... i think political correctness was originally intended to foster sensitivity towards others, and awareness of our own biased assumptions... when did it turn into a tool of oppression?
Political correctness does seem to have gone the way of madness on some occasions, but it amuses me up that it's usually white males that get upset about it.
Hmm... wonder why that is?
It wouldn't surprise me if here was a group called "Privileged White Liberals Against Political Correctness" or "The Association for the Rights of Privileged Whites to Tell Racist Jokes in public."
In the latter group, "in public" would be the key phrase seeing as I doubt things have changed much for some.